Pulau Kompei with Pulau Sembilan in the Background
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PLATE 1: Pulau Kompei with Pulau Sembilan in the background. Between them lies the northern entrance to Aru Bay. PLATE 2: Pulau Kompei Stoneware Bowl (See Appendix 1, Fig. 2D) A NOTE ON PULAU KOMPEI IN ARU BAY, NORTHEASTERN SUMATRA* E. Edwards McKinnon and Tengku Luckman Sinar The story of Pulau Kompei is intimately linked with that of Aru Bay and its immediate hinterland, an area drained by several sizeable rivers, the most impor tant of which is the Besitang,* 1 rising on the slopes of Gunung Mesigit on the east ern side of the Bukit Barisan range. We first visited the site on August 17, 1974, prompted by a reference to "Kompei" by O. W. Wolters2 and the reprinting of John Anderson's Mission to the East Coast of Sumatra, in which Kompei is referred to as Pulau Sampah tua. 3 We immediately encountered significant traces of former habi tation in the form of sampah tua, or ancient rubbish of the nineteenth century Malays. Although we carried out no excavations at Pulau Kompei, we did make surface collections of potsherds and other artifacts which have enabled us to give a tentative dating to at least one period of trading activity there. We were able to visit the site on three subsequent occasions up to early 1977, and our further in vestigations led us to believe that we had rediscovered the "Kompei" mentioned in Chinese records. We acknowledge, however, that an inconsistency seems to exist between the suggested location of the toponym and at least one of the products said to be available there. The following note is a summary of our investigations between 1974 and 1977. Pulau Kompei and Aru Bay The island of Pulau Kompei and a village of the same name are situated at the northern side of the northern entrance to Aru Bay (Telok A ru ), 4° 12' N. 98° 15' E. 4 Located on a narrow channel which separates it from the rocky northern shore of Pulau Sembilan, Pulau Kompei is ideally situated to control the entrance * The authors would like to thank Professor O. W. Wolters for reading an earlier draft of this paper and making several helpful suggestions. 1. J. A. van Rijn van Alkemade, "Een Bezoek aan de Aroe-baai," Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 38 (1889), pp. 55-73. He states that the name de rives from besi melintang, a sandbar resembling the blade of a knife which lay diagonally across the mouth of the river. Before reaching Aru Bay the Besitang is joined by the Tungkam, Halaban, Sikundur, and Sisirah at Tanjong Keramat, and in the bay itself by the Salahaji. 2. See his The Fall of Srivijaya in Malay History (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford Univer sity Press, 1970), p. 42. 3. John Anderson, Mission to the East Coast of Sumatra (1826; reprinted. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford in Asia, 1971), p. 239. 4. The exact location is given in: Cazeteer No. 10. Sumatra (Washington: United States Navy Department, Hydrographic Office, 1944). 49 A R U BAY MAP 1 51 to the bay. 5 (See Map 1.) To the north and west of the island runs the Sungei (river) Serangjaya,6 and a narrow channel through mangrove swamps connects this river with Aru Bay and the Sungei Besitang in the southwest. Although there are low hills around the bay, much of the land in the interior is flat and swampy. A short distance to the south lies the modern oil port of Pangkalan Susu, Kab. Langkat, and due east the open waters of the Selat Melaka and the coast of Perak. The name Kompei or Kampei, also variously spelled as Kompe, Kumpai, or Kum-> peh, seems to be derived from the Malay word kumpai, or rumput kumpai, a rush (Panicum myrnus), the pith of which can be used as a wick and the young shoot of which is edible. 7 It is not uncommon in the Indonesian archipelago for the names of plants to be given to places. Examples are found elsewhere in Sumatra and the area of the Selat Melaka, one of the most famous being Penang, or Pulau Pinang, which takes its name from the Pinang palm. 8 Kompei is probably yet another exam ple of such usage. Little is known of the history of the area until fairly recent times. A few pre historic implements have been found in the environs of Aru Bay, and shell middens once existed at Seruwai and Sungei Hui on the north bank of the Tamiang river a short distance to the north of the bay. 9 Although in 1924 a site known as Kota Batu was reportedly discovered by a forestry official in the jungle on the middle reaches of the Besitang riv er,10 apparently no archaeologist visited it. Local in habitants have suggested verbally that there were other fortified sites in the re gion, but their existence has not been confirmed. Dutch sources connect Aru Bay with an erstwhile Batak polity of Aru or Haru, which the present authors believe had its center in the Deli region11 although its power may once have extended as 5. The southern entrance was formerly obstructed by a sandbar. 6. See "Aanvullingsnota van toelichting betreffende het rijk van Langkat," Tijd- schrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap (hereafter TBG), 53 (1911), p. 331, where this is described as the "Sungei or terusan" Serangjaya, a name possibly indicating that the channel had been subject to canalization or other hydraulic work at some former time. 7. R. J. Wilkinson, A Malay-English Dictionary (London: Macmillan, 1959), p. 624. See also L. H. Burkhill, A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula (Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Agriculture, 1966), p. 1234. Burkhill gives the botanical name as Hymenachne myurus. Beauv. 8. There are many examples of such usage. Telok Aru, for example, derives from the name of the Casuarina tree, pohon Aru or Rhu, thus: "the bay of Casua- rinas." 9. L. C. Heyting, "Memorie van Overgave van der Controleur te Pangkalan Bran- dan 21 April 1927-1 Juni 1928." Two artifacts were reportedly found in an area of young rubber at Buluh Telang (HM 142 along the BPM pipeline) in October 1927. On shell middens on this coast, see H. R. van Heekeren, The Stone Age of Indo nesia (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1972), pp. 86-92. For a more recent discussion of Hoabinhian influence in northeastern Sumatra, see John N. Miksie, "Archaeology, Trade and Society in Northeast Sumatra" (Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, 1979). 10. See note by P. C. van Stein Callenfels, in Oudheidkundig Vers lag (hereafter OV) (1924), pp. 108-10. Kota Batu is described as situated on the Sungei Pinang, a tributary of the Sungei Besitang above Bengkil. 11. For a discussion of the history of Aru, see A. C. Milner, E. Edwards McKin 52 far as Aru Bay. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and possibly earlier still, the whole area from Langkat south to the Panei/Barumun estuary was known as the Aru coast. 12 One version of the legend of Puteri Hijau, the Green Princess who fought valiantly against Aceh in the sixteenth century, is associated with Aru Bay and with the river Sijanda [the "widow"] and Pulau Mesjid in particular. Tradition has it that a mosque once stood on Pulau Mesjid, which would explain the name "mosque island," but no trace of the building remains.13 Like the Deli area, Aru Bay came under the hegemony of Aceh in the early sixteenth century and remained so until conquered by Siak some time between 1795 and 1811.1*t In the nineteenth century it was part of the Sultanate of Langkat and administered as the luhak Telok Haru, comprising the five subdistricts of Pulau Kompei, Besitang, Lepan, Babaian, and Pulau Sembilan.15 In earlier times it is possible that Pulau Kompei was more of an island than it is today. The encroachment of mangrove (Rhizophora spp.) and the continued silting up of Aru Bay, as has occurred in other parts of the east coast of Sumatra over past centuries, may have done much to alter the general topography of the area, 6 although silting is unlikely to have had much effect on the importance of Kompei itself. The main modern navigational approach to Pangkalan Susu through Aru Bay is by means of the southern channel between Pulau Sembilan and the mainland. 17 This route appears to be a recent development, for in the nineteenth century such an non, and Tengku Luckman Sinar, "A Note on Aru and Kota Cina," Indonesia, 26 (October 1978), pp. 1-42. 12. Ibid., p. 19. 13. See van Alkemade, "Bezoek," p. 62, where he states that he sought in vain for any remains which would prove or disprove the claims of the Malays regarding the site of the former mosque. The 1:50,000 scale map, SUMATRA. Gouvt. Oost- kust van Sumatra, Sheet 2c. (1922), shows a settlement on the southeastern side of Pulau Mesjid. When we visited Pulau Mesjid in 1974, the only signs of habita tion were a number of tall coconut palms among the dense undergrowth. 14. W. H. M. Schader, Geschiedenis van Sumatra's Oostkust (Medan: Instituut van Sumatra's Oostkust, 1918), Pt. 2. 15. See "Aanvullingsnota," pp. 325-53. Luhak = district. 16. For discussions relating to coastal change in this region, see H. D. Tjia, S. Asikin, and R. S. Atmadja, "Coastal Accretion in Western Indonesia," Bulletin of the National Institute of Geology and Mining [Bandung], 1, 1 (1968), pp. 15-45. With regard to South Sumatra, see M. J. G.